He was already putting the car in gear, but he shook his head. “You know that isn’t going to work, right?”

“Because you can’t outrun him?”

“Because he is going to be at the track today and see us together.”

“That’s a lot better than finding us on the side of the road after we just had sex. Go! Now!”

“For you? Of course. Put the harness on,” he said, laughing as he took off. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to look at anything as he sped through the winding road.

Before long, I couldn’t see the lights behind us. I knew it would catch up to me. I knew my dad was about to find out what was going on, and he wouldn’t know none of it was real, but it wasn’t going to happen like that.

Ten minutes later, he pulled into Holt Racing’s track, and we got out.

“I can’t believe my perfect little prom queen just told me to run from the cops,” he said, wrapping his hand in mine. I stared down at our intertwined fingers, noticing how right it felt.

I knew there was no escaping the truth now. I would be facing my dad, and he would be facing Holt. My friends were back, at least the ones I wanted, and I was happily living on campus again.

A sudden wave of nausea hit me as I realized this was it.

After today, there would be no reason to keep dating Kye.

TWENTY-THREEDAISY

His hand stayed wrapped in mine the entire walk, and he didn’t seem to mind. He even tightened his grip as the crowd thickened.

We made it to the pit area where they let us by and Kye continued on, heading towards the only building on this side. The entire wall facing the track was glass, giving anyone inside the perfect view of everything happening below.

“We need to go up and find Holt first, then we can come back down and hang out before I do a few laps.”

“A few laps doing what, exactly?”

“Showing Holt that I will be the best damn driver on his racing team. I would do any type of racing if he wanted me to. Rally, drift, stunt. I want to do it all.”

“Those all sound…dangerous,” I said, my hand tightening.

“It is, but I’m good at it, so no worries.”

“No worries? I have all the worries, all the time. This will just add to my endless pile of worries,” I said, talking faster now.

“Why would you worry about me?”

I thought it over, but couldn’t respond. How could I tell him that I would worry because I actually cared about him? Not in a pretending fake boyfriend way, but in a very real, very scary way.

We made it to the room overlooking the track. Holt was sitting at a bar top area with Ash and Fox next to him. Scout, Chase, Jax, and Carly were lounging on some of the chairs in front of the glass windows. Ransom and Quinn cut us off immediately.

“You’re late,” Ransom said.

“By, like, five minutes.”

“Well, Holt noticed,” Quinn said. “You better have a reasonable excuse because he is watching you like a damn hawk today, and already asked if you were going to flake.”

Kye huffed and pulled me along with him towards Holt.

Honestly, I’d known Holt most of my life. He was always nice to me. I knew that he and my dad were close enough that we went to a lot of his parties and events, but my dad always tried to stay away from the bigger ones. The track party was one that Holt threw every year, though, and my dad never missed it. Fast cars, food, all the new announcements of racers, cars, events, and anything else outlandish that Holt could tell people. It had always been fun when I came with my dad, but I never imagined I would be here with someone who was going to be racing for him. I couldn’t help the pride that grew in my chest when I looked over at Kye.

My life was beginning to feel surreal, and it was strange how much I liked it all.

I liked waking up with Kye, hanging out, and driving here. I was even excited to watch him race, even if it made me worried. I liked every second with Kye.

I slid my hand around until it rested on his lower back. He seemed confused when he looked down at me, but he threw his arm over my shoulders and started talking to Holt.

“You made it,” Holt said, shaking his hand.

“You know I wasn’t going to miss it.”

Holt shrugged. “Never know with guys like you.”

“I forgot something at home. I had to make a stop,” I said, the anger in my chest flaring. I hated the way people talked to Kye, as if anything was wrong with him. As if he hadn’t been doing everything to show Holt he could handle this career.

Ash beamed at me. “Better stop asking interrogating questions about what Daisy needed to turn back for now, Dad, or you might have a full meltdown like you did when you found out I actually have to go out and buy tampons sometimes.”

“Oh, come on, Ashton, I wasn’t going to ask more,” Holt said, his face immediately turning red.

“Well, you were interrogating Kye. Just wanted to remind you that you don’t need to interrogate Daisy, too.”

The heat crept up my neck, but I knew Ash was helping.

“I wasn’t going to ask her, Ashton. You are a menace to me,” Holt said, laughing as she smiled at him. “Let me intimidate Kye in peace, so he knows how serious this is.”

The tightness in my chest eased as I realized Holt wasn’t going to be more of a dick to Kye.

“No intimidating necessary,” Kye said. “I’m already taking this seriously.”

Holt made a huffing noise as the door slammed open, an old man stepping inside looking very pissed off.

“Did no one tell you to install a damn elevator in this building, Holt? Do you not care about the elderly?”

Carly got up, running over to the door and grabbing the guy’s arm. “What are you doing, Grandpa? I told you that we would meet you downstairs.”

“And then they told me that you have food and air conditioning up here, so I didn’t want to wait.”

Carly walked him over to us as he looked me over. “Daisy, this is my grandpa. Grandpa, this is Daisy, Kye’s…girlfriend,” she said, her lips pursing together to stifle a laugh.

“Oh, no,” Kye said, stepping a little closer to me.

“Girlfriend?” Grandpa asked, his eyes going wide and a frown deepening on his face. Everyone had yelled hello to him, but I wasn’t sure why. He didn’t look friendly at all.“You mean to tell me this guy finally found a girlfriend?”

“I did,” Kye said. “But there is no finally, Grandpa, I wasn’t looking.”